ABSTRACT
This chapter differs from others presented in this book because based as it largely is around the First World War and other modern conflicts, it does not describe a literary period or school, but rather a time in history. The reason for making it the subject of a separate chapter is the increasing emphasis given at Advanced and degree level to works which trace their origin back either to the First World War, or other wars. These fall into a number of categories. Firstly, there is the work of the so-called ‘war poets’. Secondly, there is the work of the numerous novelists who based their novels on the First World War. Thirdly, there are the women poets whose writing was inspired by or based upon the same war. Fourthly, there is the work of populist poets writing in the First World War who are coming in for increasing critical attention after years of neglect. Fifthly, there are the dramatists whose writing was based on the war. Sixthly, there are the modern or contemporary novelists who have used the war as their inspiration. Seventhly, and perhaps riding on the back of the popularity of the First World War authors, there has been increasing interest in the poetry of the Second World War. Eighthly, and largely beyond the scope of this book, there is the work of European writers in verse and prose with either the First or the Second World War as their subject.
